History Main / FiveEpisodePilot

** The third season '''did''' begin with a 5-part episode ("The Five Faces of Darkness") which was essentially like a new pilot, restarting the series after the massive amount of changes wrought by the events of TheTransformersTheMovie.

* The [[WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania}} Netflix adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' features one season of four 22-minute episodes that collectively form a set-up pilot. The conflict with Dracula is introduced, three of our protagonists (Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and {{Alucard}}/Adrian Ţepeş), and plenty of world-building is put in place. A second season was greenlit immediately on release, and its length was confirmed to have been doubled.

* ''Series/{{Ghostwriter}}'' had not one, but two of these: The five-part episode "Who Burned Mr. Brinker's Store" was intended to be the pilot episode, with the Ghostwriter team already formed and solving cases. However, this was pushed back to the second episode so that "Ghost Story", a more conventional pilot, could made. "Ghost Story" also had five episodes and detailed how each member of the team met Ghostwriter and each other.

The upshot of this for distributors was that when the shows were released on video the first five could be grouped into a CompilationMovie. Because of this, the storyline often ends with the arrest or apparent death of the BigBad (or maybe an unrelated inaugural villain), with the sixth episode picking up with the introduction of the "real" bad guys, or showing how the villain is OnlyMostlyDead or otherwise coming back into action.

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The upshot of this for distributors was that when the shows were released on video the first five could be grouped into a CompilationMovie. Because of this, the storyline often ends with the arrest or apparent death of the BigBad (or maybe an unrelated inaugural villain), with the sixth episode picking up with the introduction of the "real" bad guys, or showing how the villain is OnlyMostlyDead NotQuiteDead or otherwise coming back into action.

*** MarketBasedTitle: Not only was the series called ''Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles'' in the UK, that five-episode pilot was also renamed, as ''How It All Began''.

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*** MarketBasedTitle: Not only was In the UK, the series was called ''Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles'' in Turtles'', and a rather insanely cobbled together version of the UK, that five-episode pilot was also renamed, released on VHS as ''How "How It All Began''.Began". This edit was, in fact, bits and pieces of the third season episode "Blast From The Past" (which contained flashbacks to the pilot) cut together with random episodes of season two. Worse, the tape ends half-way through the Eye of Zarnoth saga, leaving the viewer on a cliffhanger.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' launched with a ''two'' episode pilot. Following this, the show's second year consisted entirely of a five-parter that was actually subtitled TheMovie, and each of its subsequent three seasons began with a five-parter as well. The VHS includes the first four episodes as a movie-length feature.

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* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'' launched with a ''two'' episode pilot. Following this, the show's second year consisted entirely of a five-parter that was actually subtitled TheMovie, and each of its subsequent three seasons began with a five-parter as well. The VHS includes the first four episodes as a movie-length feature.

* ''[[{{WesternAnimation/Phantom2040}} Phantom 2040]]'' technically had a two part opener, but the first five episodes all act to introduce the main characters and establish the status quo that would remain for the remainder of the series. The first five episodes were also later reworked into a movie.

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* ''[[{{WesternAnimation/Phantom2040}} Phantom 2040]]'' ''{{WesternAnimation/Phantom 2040}}'' technically had a two part opener, but the first five episodes all act to introduce the main characters and establish the status quo that would remain for the remainder of the series. The first five episodes were also later reworked into a movie.

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